Our First Vegan Day!

Ok, there is some plans for our meals now. 

We decided(or I decided LOL) to have a vegetarian day(we can eat dairy but no meat or seafood) and vegan day once a week, a full day. 

I thought this is very great start so we won't kill ourselves by trying SO-hard. It gives us some rooms that enjoy juicy red meat and fatty happy pork belly but still make us feel good about we are trying to treat ourselves better. And an extra benefit that I didn't looking for(or I didn't know) is my creative mind for cooking is getting wide open to the whole new world! 

Surprisingly we didn't miss meat or seafood at all! Well, I kinda missed egg and cheese on the vegan day though. lol 

I've been a vegan for a couple months before(I just woke up in the morning and I decided to become a vegan. lol Jacob was so shocked!! But then again, I had to quit being vegan because of egg and cheese. lol), so it wasn't very hard for me to take it and looking for the vegan ingredients. Because I went through all that my first vegan experience. But I was worry about Jacob so much. He is a man who loves meat and I still wanted to make him happy with the vegan meals and let him looking forwards to have it not avoid the vegan day, you know.

So I come up with the vegetables and fruits he loves and make sure the meal has enough protein. 

So let's get start with our first meal of the vegan day!

Breakfast!! 

We did work out in the morning and while Jacob is getting ready for work, I made our first vegan breakfast for us! 

I made savory oatmeal with silken tofu, tomatoes and avocado/orange/apple with peanut butter/V8 mango&peach.

I want to explain about this oatmeal to you guys, because it's our first time trying savory oatmeal and it is delicious!!! 

The original plan I wanted to try is, make oatmeal with chicken broth then top with poached or fried egg, avocado and some cotija(one of Mexican crumbling cheese) on top.

Well as you know, it's not vegetarian or vegan. Not bad for you though. So I had to change the gear.

I thought veg broth will work, but in the busy morning "Ain't nobody got time for that!"  lol

So there is my vegan breakfast saver, "Yundoo"!! 

If you want to know what is Yundoo, click here: http://seonkyounglongest.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-pantry-asian-pantry-basic-asian.html

Because it made with only vegetables, I could mix with water and make quick veg broth with it! YAY!!

So I made oatmeal in microwave with Yundoo and water. 

Top with silken tofu, avocado, cherry tomatoes, sprinkle of black&white sesame seeds and drizzle of sesame oil. I added a bit of lime juice into avocado, I didn't mind the flavor but Jacob said it didn't go well with other flavors. So if you want to try this, the lime juice into avocado is totally up to you!


Lunch!
I knew I want to make quinoa for lunch, because I know how much Jacob loves it!
I really like quinoa even better than brown rice! It has 7g of protein per serving, but it is still grain?!
I love this thing and it tastes so good too.

Cooking quinoa is very easy. It's very similar method with cooking rice.

1 cup quinoa, 2 cups water. That's all you need!
Bring water to boil, add quinoa, bring back to boil and reduce heat to medium and simmer for 12 minutes.
Remove from heat, let it sit for additional 15 minutes, and you done!


I bought veg sausage just in case if I can't be smart about vegan cooking(also I didn't want to make tofu all day either.). And sure it helped me out this lunch time!!
I took out all the vegetables I had in the refrigerator, which is onion, bell peppers, eggplant and cherry tomatoes. I decided to roast them, and then I thought roast veg sausage will be good too, so I did.

I just simply season with salt pepper and some extra virgin olive oil. Toss it all together, roast them in the oven until they get nice softened and sweet~ <3

Oh, and I added a clove of garlic and dried basil.

Yeah, they are ready~!

Mix in the quinoa, I added some chive just because I had it and was going bad. lol

I chopped some parsley and cut cucumber to add nice freshness and crunch! 

Oh, yeah, that was a great idea! :-D I wish I had some fresh basil to add, but I guess next time I will! (Pretty sure I'm gonna make this again, because we both LOVED this dish!)

Add in~~~

 

Oh, and I added some salt and extra virgin olive oil as well.

Add some freshly squeezed lemon juice~ for even more freshness into the dish!
If you really like lemony taste, you can add lemon zest as well. I just didn't want it to be over powering.

Mix Mix Mix~ <3

Isn't it look so pretty?? So colorful and you can taste all the different textures just looking at it!! :-d

Delicious!!

I served delicious quinoa with roasted veg with strawberry&spinach salad! :-D

I topped the salad with sliced & toasted almond for crunch and dressed with evoo, fig balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper! OH-SO GOOD!!

Lunch was so delicious(and we were so hungry too!), we forgot to talk! lol 

Jacob said it was a very satisfied vegan meal! YAY!!! :-D

So, I was so pumped up after his comment, I wanted to make even better at dinner time! lol

I decided to make falafel for dinner! So vegan like, right?! lol

 I wanted to make something special falafel, even though it was my first time making it.

I thought, how abut add some mung beans and sweet rice into chick peas...?
So I did!

I ground soaked mung bean, sweet rice and chick peas in a food processor, ground until your desire fineness. You can control how fine you want, if you want kosher, don't pulse too much.

And I didn't forget to snacking my strawberries while I'm cooking dinner! :-d 

I seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic, cayenne, fresh cilantro, grape seeds oil and some flour to hold them together, about 2 Tbs. I don't think I needed flour though.  

Oh, and I added some ground flax seeds too!

I thought it's nice healthy touch to my falafel! :-) And sure it was!

Am I just natural at healthy cooking?? lol 

After I mixed all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, I heat up my oil to fry my falafel.

I didn't deep fry, I did half fry.. which is I do very often when it comes down frying food.

In a regular skillet, I add oil about 1/2 inch high. Heat the oil, and fry my food what ever I prepare!

I like this method because I need only 1/4 to 1/2 amount oil of how much oil I actually need if I dip fry.   

I fry them until nice crust outside and darkened. and TARAN~!!  

Ahhhhh it was SO-GOOD!!!

Actually the nuttiness from mung bean was really good in falafel and sweet rice added real nice crunch into it!! So, my twist was very success!! 

I topped with tahini and lemon juice mixture, but if I made a vegetarian meal instead vegan, I probably made creamy yogurt sauce with cucumber and fresh herbs! (I was looking for soy yogurt, I couldn't find.)

 I served a bed of spinach, cucumber, tomato and avocado. Drizzle some more evoo and sprinkle some salt and pepper! It was DELISHHH!!

So we survive on our very first vegan day together, and it was actually quite good!
I'm looking forward to make more vegan recipes, and already can't wait to share with you guys!!

Thank you for read this loooonnnnggg post, have a great Sunday!!!

♥XOXO ♥

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